Litigation on tabulator patents
In 1904 a license under the patent was granted the Burroughs Adding Machine Co., but soon after the granting of the license another manufacturer of recording-adders brought out a machine with a wide carriage, which was the start of a series of long-drawn-out infringement suits. The fact that Felt had delayed taking out his patent formed the grounds on which the Court finally decided that Felt, from lack of diligence in applying for a patent, had abandoned his invention, which made it public property.
The tags which may be seen tied to the carriage of the machine are the official tags used to identify it as a court exhibit during the long term of years the suits were pending in litigation.
Outside of the tabulating scheme, the machine was in other respects the same as the recorder just described as the roll-paper “Comptograph.”
“Cross Tabulating”
The paper, as may be noted, is held in a shiftable carriage and is operated by two levers, one to feed the paper vertically and reset the printing-hammers, while the other moved the carriage laterally for the spacing of the columns of items or the cross-printing when desired. Besides the lever action for shifting and paper-feeding, means were provided on the right-hand end of the carriage for performing these functions; one of these is the thumb knob which served to feed the sheet of paper into the rolls; the other is a small lever which allows the operator to shift the carriage by hand independent of the carriage shift-lever.
The Third Felt Recorder
While the first lot of recording-adders manufactured by Felt were wholly practical, as was well proved by the statements of those who purchased them, it is easy to pick out features in their make-up that today, when compared with the new highly-developed Art, would seem to make them impractical.
The necessity of operating from right to left and the necessity of printing the totals by key depression were features that, in view of there being nothing better in those days, did not seem objectionable to those who used them. They were features, however, that Felt overcame and eliminated in the next lot of machines manufactured and placed on the market in 1890.
FELT'S COMPTOGRAPH